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After lets of trouble shooting and ordering another PSU it turns out it is the DX12 setting that is causing the crashes for me too.,..
One item left to get.
Think the exotics list is missing Defiler (bouble barrelled swan off). Seems to be the last piece I need. The loot drops have been more helpfull than I expected. I have been running Legendaries on all 4 characters though.
Update: Defiler not required. Caduceus was the missing item that was held by a different Agent. Shiled now completed.
Remeber, the Hunters usually drop an exotic and they are in Legendary missions for;
amethyst's
Madison
Grand Central
General Assembly
Cycling these will usually allow you to get at least one exotic per run even if you have do it for the weekly exotic cache already.
Underground also has the Hunters but not sure how often they drop exotics.

When they brought out the new wave of exotics (The House etc) people were complaining that they were getting the old ones most of the time (Eir etc) so I remember reading they were removing the old ones from the loot pools and you could get them from the vendors only.
I suspect this was not done, or at least not done correctly as I got a Warlord last night from General Assembly on Legendary.
I raise you your slowdowns with my crash to desktop that is now happening. Have been trying to sort it out with UBI support for a while now and deleting / reinstalling the VCRedist packages seems to help for a bit but a day or so later and back to CTD.
I have a suspicion that Adobe Creative Cloud may have an issue with The Division as I recently installed it and soon after the crashes started.
Will do a full rebuild this weekend. Probably due for a software cleardown .

Clever of the devs.
Most people will not save one of each exotic although lots will have had them go through their hands.
I suspect this is going to be quite hard for the non-collectors (like myself) as getting the pieces is all down to the loot system which is pretty crappy. I refuse to fast cycle Lexington over and over again .
I guess the grind is back on ...
Update: Well apparently I stored a lot of them it seems and forgot. I have the Bliss Holster, Hildr & Eir, Tommygun and two other weapons to get (1 gear, 5 weapons) to complete. This is going to be maddening.
I thought the old exotics were taken out of the missions loot pool now so only the new set can get got ?.

So DayZ has come out of Beta. It has now released with V1.
They have also released the server files so you can run your own server.
I spent the weekend with it and here is my impression so far.
I last played DayZ 4 years ago. I left it to go and play on my own server with DayZ Epoch (a DayZ Mod variant with base building, driving etc). I then wrote some mods for Epoch (Perm bases) and contributed to the Github repo for bug fixes and small additions.
I loved the survival concept (although it was a little hardcore) but disliked the PvP as action without any accountability rarely brings out the best in people although there are exceptions. The DZ in The Division is another example of this.
The server files being released was the main reason for me to take a look again as I could play without the PvP element and do coop PvE with the kids in the massive open world.
Server Install
How not to install --> Download via steam on another machine, copy the files over and then use steamcmd to update.
The server exe ran and looked like it was fully working but I could not connect via LAN or community servers panels no matter what I tried. After hours of playing with that I trashed it all and installed Steam on the server and used it to download the files. IT then worked first time with a little config setup.
First play on official servers.
Whilst playing around with the server install I tried the official servers. I connected to a local server and started in a usual sea side spawn point. I ran from house to house and tried to scavenge items whilst moving along the coast. One thing I found surprising was that the zombies are not as common. I could search for the most part without a worry but if you agro one they seem to be able to catch you up no matter what and you die pretty quickly. I died.
I logged in again (it was Friday PM in Asia) and tried a few different servers. It was night. Just about everywhere was night. With only a road flare this quickly got pretty boring. Walking in a forest or town etc with a small light can be fun and adrenaline pumping for a while but, for me at least, having to do so for hours is really tedious. I played for a bit then logged off for until the next day.
Next day came, logged in and found myself in a ditch with the railway lines. Needed some food so opened a tin of tuna I found the day before and walked out of the railway valley up on to the road. There was another figure there. I stood still. Was it a zombie.... no it was a player. I had a weapon but holding the can of tuna then stopped me from getting it. They spotted me and then charged. The resulting Benny Hill run around ensued with me cursing the game as my quick weapon keys were not changing my weapon and they killed me. I logged off. My view on unaccountably breading arse hats had not changed.
TIP: If you have no space in your backpack for all your items you cannot quick change items. Putting my axe away filled up all my space when I took the tuna out and so I could not change to my axe as there was no place to put the tuna back before taking the axe out. This is exasperated by the fact that the space you have must be of the right shape and size of the item you are intending to put away. If you pick up an item and the game places it in the middle of a space block you were using to store something then you cannot store that item again until you go in to your inventory and 'repack'. This is pretty bad. You can carry a gun and a large melee weapon on your back with no space needed and a pistol if you find a chest holster. Go past that though (carry two guns due to ammo issue or magazine issues etc) and you have to be very careful.
I then managed to sort out my own server and connect so no more PvP issues and I could enjoy playing the game PvE to get back in to the groove with it.
Here are my main thoughts;
Good
Less zombies - You can go about looting or running around between places without the fear of a zombie popping up and ruining your day.
No zombie wall clipping - I didn't see any zombies walking through walls which was a major issue with the old game.
Most ladders are safe - I died once with a big tower trying to get off half way up but apart from that, ladders were not the silent killers they used to be.
Health and GUI - The GUI is back to using icons which I much prefer and the stamina system is interesting but not particularly intuitive. I had to read up on it as my stamina bar just kept going down even though my food and water levels were usually up near the top.
Bad
Zombies still have problems with structures - I aggro'd a zombie and ran up in to a building site building (the one with multiple floors and not many walls. The zombie and it's friends could not walk up the stairs. They just walked through them. This was the only case I saw but still....
Suppressors don't seem to work for zombies - Shooting a zombie, even with a suppressed weapon still causes all zombies in the area to come flooding in.
Reloading is ridiculous - I can take the loading of magazines and the unboxing of bullets as clunky as it is by having to put them in you hands in the inventory menu and then coming out and then performing an action then going in to the inventory again to move the result out of your hands but to take a mag and put it in your gun only being possible from the inventory screen is just madness. The quick reload button seems to do nothing and the fire mode selection button (both originally mapped to 'R') just ejects a single bullet from the chamber.
Lots of items seem to have been removed from the game - I found a few M4's, KA-Ms, MPS-K, UMP-45 and one SVD type sniper. Pea coats were everywhere, not much variety of the massive lists of items they kept adding with DayZ went SE 4 years ago.
Sniper scopes do not seem to work - The PSO scope on the sniper or KA-M does not seem to work. Using the scope does not have you looking down the scope. The player is still looking down the weapons original sights. Same is true for adding a scope to the MPS-K. You can not look down it. Scopes that originally come with the weapons do work (KA-M scope works for instance).
General
Loot is pretty rare although the amounts of compasses, binoculars and KA weapon mods of the same type I have found is very high. Searching two military bases for an M4 mag for the M4 I found or a KA-M gun for the KA-M mags I have found and not finding either is pretty irritating.
Looks to be a basic bare bones of a vehicle system in there with car parts here and there but I saw very few and they were widely scattered over the map. Getting them all and bringing them to one car would be a massive undertaking requiring many, many hours of play.
Zombie clearing is easy if you are not concerned about other players. Stand on something high (stack of pallets, wall etc), shoot a zombie and wait for the surrounding zombies to come to you. Shoot them as they mill around not being able to reach you and then go loot without any zombie concerns.
Last word
I love this game for its potential. I spent the whole weekend more or less playing it to try and fine the bits I would love and which would make me want to keep playing but all I could think is "What is this all for and why am I playing'. I loved Epoch for the decent base building (with the snap mods that came out), the persistent bases so you keep them even if you die. The safes and traders, the vehicles which you could repair and had to maintain and fuel. I was hoping that these things had made it to DayZ SE (even as options as not everyone would want them) but no. What I found was the same basic DayZ experience with less loot. The damage / health mechanics have changed, the engine is new and the map has been reworked but it just does not feel like 4 years worth of more stuff. It feels like 4 years of a couple of people in a basement using scripting tools to write a mod for a game engine.
If you have it already then give it a spin and see if you can fine what you are hoping for in it.
If you do not have it then don't buy it expecting quality and polish. Part of the appeal is the situations it forces players in to, especially with permadeath but for me it is so clunky and painful to do basic stuff (like reloading) and 'basic' that I would not rate this as any more than an Indy title. I certainly would not put it up there with other top games.
Bootnote: Permadeath need not be permadeath if you are running your own server and know the player ID of the character to revive. The player details are stored in a SQLite3 db file and you can bring players back to like very easily although their other stats etc are not in a format that is currently easily editable. I revived my character on my server 3 times using the basic sqlite3 tools. Twice I still needed to bandage to stop the blood loss or I would have just died again. Obviously if someone else owns the server then you cannot do this .

As @genedjr mentioned, chat on the TD2 Alpha forums. Plenty of helpful people there (unlike the general forums ). Ping me there if needed. I would also delete your post here just to be sure you do not upset anyone .

Finally got it. Joined a team who were going after the boxes and after the second box opening two went and dies but I kept on fighting and with one other managed to clear the level and two others agreed to keep going till level 15 (the other person quit and someone else joined).
Game crashed on round 13 but I got back in midway through round 14 and so got the shield.
Also played with a random team last night and we got to around round 18 before getting killed via contamination. Unfortunately my Sentries build cannot clear cooldowns in 20s so couldn't switch to Reclaimer and no-one else had immu station :-(.
3rd award for TD2 now achieved. Three more shields and the last reward to go .

It isn't.
Usually I would not be to bothered with this one as I can usually team up with other randoms and open two, or if the other team members don't just quit, 3 classified boxes. This time things are different....
Rather than securing a place and staying put until you need to move on and have enough tokens to open things, people are just rushing out causing the enemies to spawn all over the place.
Played two rounds last night...
First in carrier where one guy just charged out before we had the tokens to open the building at the far end and stayed out. Then we finally opened it but died in the contamination round (second one) even though when my immu box blew, another person in the team didn't drop theirs. We all died of contamination with only 3 enemies remaining.
Second in the container port has one guy in a new team rushing to get the data breach and kill the bosses rather than farming. Had to keep telling them to come in to the corridor where the enemies can only come from one side (out of the first building, to the right and up one level). I changed to my agent with 6 piece Sentries and 6 piece Reclaimer. Contamination was fine, ran Sentry at other times but they kept going out of the corridor which resulted in spawns all over the place including from the corridor. We dies on round 13 with all the rushers.
Also had around 6 crashes of TD. Updated my Nvidia drivers a few days ago so suspect that is the reason. Will try again tonight.

Think most people do solo or go in set groups rather than grouping with randoms as coms etc would be difficult.
You can team up in the game if you can catch someone long enough to ask them.
PvE is much easier and a bit friendlier for obvious reasons but even with PvE you are still all competing for mats and gear chests etc.
When starting out look for fires or shelter when your health hits half way until you get better clothing. The map shows some you have passed or that are near and don't be afraid to backtrack if you need to as it is better than freezing.

I signed up and then bought (pre-ordered) the Ultimate ed. so I am gonna be Dead Sea salty if I don't get in as, oh you know.... they don't have any Asia based Beta servers.
That or I do get in (as I have flippin well paid) and they don't have any Asia Beta servers so it will the a lag-tastic wonderland.
Oh the anticipation.
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Woh, no emoticons to choose from anymore on the forums.

I am sorta in the same boat (burnout) but on Survival I am the reverse. I have liked it but the risk / reward is seriously low for the time you spend so I rarely played. Now days, however, there is not really much meaningful reward in the LZ / DZ either when you are pretty much geared up. Survival is a bit more random than just grinding set missions where you know the location of all the enemies etc so it is a bit more of a sense of achievement when you go through it and get out. The Hunter battle at the end really gets the blood running after all that time spent. I recorded my last run so I may edit and upload, possibly just the last Hunter battle to give some others some ideas if solo.
Survival is more or less all I am playing at the moment but I tend to play solo PvE and teaming with randoms can be frustrating for the other stuff. Guess it sorta suits me at this time. The Hunter battle at the end really gets the blood running after all that time spent.
Really didn't like Warframe that much. So many different MAT types with so many combinations needed for different parts and multiple parts needed for an item. Finding the right Mats for Div blueprints was bad enough in the past. This just seems massively worse, unless you want to pay pretty high costs (ie more than a top tier game) for an item (Warframe suit). I do appreciate it is free to play and gets updated often but the grind is extreme unless you are willing to throw the cash at it. The kids love it though.
Currently getting back in to Dying Light and some good old zombie thumping with various home made weapons.

It seems to work strangely.
Your Hunter gets tagged to your final score even if someone else takes it out but if you are not actually grouped and others appear at the extraction and kill Hunters you do not get any credit for being there. You have to be actually grouped with the killers it seems.
That would be my assumption as I am never grouped and that is what happens when others wander on my LZ or I wander in to theirs.
Hunters are much easier one on one which is why solo works well IMO.
One thing I will say is don't give up (unless you are downed). I have had very crap runs with really bad mats / clothing / armour finds, all close encounter areas cleared etc but somewhere along the way things pick up and I will maybe find a dead Agents stuff in the DZ and suddenly I am back in the game. My run last night was just like that. got in the DZ with 9 minutes left. Had to run for ages to get the virus cache and since I was in the upper DZ levels the bad guys were still all around, I got to the extraction zone with 3 minutes on the clock and extracted with 30s to spare solo. I have had bad luck for the first 40+ minutes but still pushed on and have rarely not extracted now. This is not due to some super excellent skills. If I can do it then most should be able to as well. It is just knowing the most likely places to loot for the items you need and going for it till the end.

So we all know that for a fully geared player, Survival does not really offer much in the way of a reward in the main game but it can still be fun in its own right if you have done everything else a few thousand times.
This is sort of where I am now so I have been dipping in to survival again and I still really enjoy it. To this end I though I would put down a few tips that I use to make it a bit more weighted in my favor when doing a run.
Clothing: I tend to try and get clothing ASAP from the housing blocks. I have done a session and extracted with -14 Degrees clothing without freezing. I believe the DZ temps are warmer than the LZ so once in I was not worried with the cold very much.
Cold: At the start the cold will kill you fast. Plan to find somewhere warm as soon as your heat bar is half way down or you can be running in circles and just die of exposure.
Good Stuff: The raised walkways in the bottom left lead to a number of rooftops where you can find some good items. Rooftops are your friends most of the time. Police stations are also good. Heli crash sites seem to be cleared more often than not when I arrive so I concentrate on other areas to get the loot others have bypassed to get to the heli's.
Skills: I always go for the Pulse now as I can detect if any enemies are around the next corner or if a site that should have enemies has already been looted before going into it. I usually use health box for my secondary as you can blow it up for a health boost or just keep it going for a top up during a fight.
Equipment: First chance I get I always craft two extended mags. They are only available in green and are easy to get early on. They make a big difference.
Weapons: I go for a belt fed LMG when possible as the ammo usually lasts well. My preferred second weapon is usually a AR of some type (pref the LVOA-C) but make sure you have two weapons that use different ammo types and that they are at least blue before going in to the DZ or tackling more difficult (Gold) enemies.
Armour: I tend to go Holster (two stats), Body armour & Kneepads (highest armour rating) then the others. I do not touch gear mods of any type as there is too much randomness. Only the stats mods I will use if I have some spare crafting materials and have most of what I want and would like a boost on a specific stat.
Meds: Don't be afraid to take these at the start but spread them out a bit or you could find you spend too much time outside in the LZ. I like to get in to the DZ with 10 mins+ to spare.
Extractions: If I get in the DZ and I hear an extraction. I will usually sprint for it as the person extracting has meds and a flare gun. Sometimes I will be lucky, sometimes I will miss the chopper or there will be a 4 Agent team there so no more room and in this situation I just move on.
Enemies: Closer you get to the DZ the tougher they get. More north you go, the better items you can craft in the safe houses. I usually go around the bottom left or right to get all the materials to gear up a bit, craft the items I need if possible on the left side and go in the DZ via the bottom left entry point. If you hug the DZ from the bottom left corner then there is only one area you may encounter enemies (if you are not silly) and there is some loot there is someone else has not beaten you too it.
Materials: Get them before you get in to the DZ. You need some gold and DT for the flare gun you can get inside but there is very little available inside the DZ as most is gold caches.
Deconstruct: Don't hoard items. If you do not need them then deconstruct them for the materials.
Last tip notes...
Subway stations can be good for loot but use your pulse to see if they have been cleared before going too deep.
People play in many different ways and these tips will not make sense for everyone. What tips have others got to share ?.
Hope to catch you by the fire barrel, hopefully not after you got to all the loot first though .

So pre-order for the Division 2 is open on U-Play.
Options are different for different regions from what I hear but there are 3 options open for me (Singapore). All prices in Singapore $. Exchange rate is around 0.73 USD , 0.99 AUD (bit of a surprise there) or 0.57 GBP.
S$70 - Standard
S$117 - Deluxe (Gold): 3 day early access + year 1 content.
S$128 - Ultimate: Couple of skins, special skill action, 7 day early access + year 1 content, larger stash size.
From memory so maybe a few other bits for Gold / Ultimate editions.
Remember you can get 20% off with 100 U-Play points.
I got the Ultimate Pre-Order with S$25 off due to the U-Play credit discount.

How I cover for Hunters (lower level parking lot extraction.
1. Facing the lower level DZ.
2. Turn right and at the top of the rams is a some metal cover (Cover 1). Hunters like to hide behind this. One Hunter spawn point (best for me to kill them) is by the parachute above my Agent.
I run forwards to the cover and turn right. There is a small L shaped building. I hold up there.
3. Looking back at where I was standing in Pic 1 & 2. Hunters can spawn to the left or right at the far end but you can usually see them running iif looking this way f that is the case and have some good cover. The ramp down with the metal cover (Cover 1) is to the right. If you see a grenade circle but have not seen any Hunters looking in this direction then the Hunter spawned down the ramp to the right.
4. Same cover looking to the right at Cover 1. There is another Hunter spawn point behind me but if standing here a Hunter will not spawn at that point. Moving backwards and around the corner provides cover from any Hunters coming in this direction. From this small building you can get good basic cover from 3 sides (there is a wall to the right and only the back is fully exposed.
If you are lucky then the Hunter will sprint from the cover to axe you but has to jump the wall. The LVOA-C with an extended mag and reasonable Firearms should be able to burst them down as they make the run.

Done and done. Finally finished the shield, mainly solo.
The last hunter ran at me and the LVOA-C burst him down in under a single mag within 30s of calling the chopper as he came charging at me to try his nasty axing ways. With the 1 1/2 minutes left on my hands I then shot a couple of reds downstairs, collected their loot and took some pics on my final extraction loadout which I will post later just in case it helps anyone else out.
The LVOA-C is awesome for this and is the reason I do not use an AR for anything but the Hunters to save the ammo as, if unlucky, the battles can run for a while.
Also managed to get the Hoarder and 10 Hunters commendations for Survival.

I suspect there are some people camping extraction sites aiming to take down the hunters when other players come in. That can be a real pain if someone is going for the Hunter kills and after around 1 hour play someone comes in and takes the kill shot...
Unfortunately teaming up on this side of the world is pretty difficult with the multitude of languages, most of which I do not speak. Have to go solo most of the time but at least I get the Lone Wolf bonus .
Got and cleared the big flamer guy on just outside the bottom left of the DZ and after was pretty much purple kitted all round. Ran the long way to the closest DZ entrance to try and get a few more mats (especially Weapon parts) and ran in to someone who just got downed. Ran in and hud whilst I revived them and after realised on the other side very close were 2 gold LMB.
Deciding discretion being the better part of valor, after the person was back on their feet I ran rather than risk it but saw the other Agent continuing to fight. This gave me pause thinking they may be super powerful to keep taking on the LMB but they went down again and before I knew it the LMB were hammering me from two sides and knocked me down. As I no longer had any health packs (due to reviving the other Agent) that was it for my last run last night.
Got one more revive for the commendation but maybe next time I will let them bleed out and take their stuff rather than waste almost an hour of playing.
Maybe I will have another go tonight for the last Hunter.
Like survival quite a bit although the virus counter is quite annoying. Starting to feel a bit samey after playing enough times. Got my Black Pigeon Down Commendation last night too (Lots of survival sessions) and have around 2 more items to extract for that Commendation to be fully cleared as well.

One more additional here.
The Purple LVOA-C I find better for blasting down the Hunters than a gold G36 or anything else TBH. Add an extended mag and something for stabilisation and you are good to go.
Snipers are pretty good for the earlier stages. SVD or M14 are great even when close with Red enemies. Purple bad guys are a bit more of a challenge.
One more hunter to go for the shield .

This one I think you just have to keep banging away at.
First day I played, went through, called the extraction chopper, hammered away at the Hunter then another Hunter appeared from the side (yep another agent joined me). What is more, although I wore the Hunters down, the other Agent got both kill shots .
Yesterday was terrible. Only made it to extraction 1/3 tries and then joined two others. Wore the Hunter down and they both killed them . To be fair it was their extraction.
Today ran once and completed solo with a Hunter kill but. I found a squad that got killed (3 Agents) and was able to sneak and loot their stuff (Hunters were still there) and ended up with gold everything for the extract.
Got to get me 4 more Hunters to get the shield (other two requirements done).
Survival is a lot more busy so speed is key. I don't go for the downed choppers but just hoover stuff I can find as quickly as possible. If you see lots of Agents then try to go a different way (unless you team up). Sometimes the route away from the target can give more mats. Just remember that further away from the DZ means lower class mats.
Before going in to the DZ make sure you have 2+ blue weapon mats (I try to go in with at least 4 so I can get the flare gun plus a purple weapon or gold if I find spare div tech).
Happy Hunting.

So with a number of commendations around killing hunters, what have you found to be the best ways to take them down.
Really taking about the underground hunters (on say challenging mode WT5) as the one on top of Madison Hospital is a nightmare and very strong.
I tend to burn them down but 1 mag is usually not enough. As soon as I finish the mag I tend to use the flashbang sticky to stop then healing and then switch to my other main weapon as it is quicker then reloading most of the time and complete the job. All the time trying not to get too close.
So how do you do it ?.